Francis Bacon oil painting breaks Christie's record

A portrait by British artist Francis Bacon depicting his lover and muse George Dyer sold for over 42 million pounds (S$88.6 million) at Christie's in London on Thursday, a European record for the auction house.

Oil masterpiece Portrait Of George Dyer Talking, painted at the height of Bacon's powers, was first shown in Paris in 1966 - the year of its creation - and then at the artist's legendary first museum retrospective at the city's Grand Palais five years later.

The exhibition opened two days after Dyer had committed suicide.

The 1.83 metre tall painting shows a contorted Dyer sitting on a stool under a bare light.